The satellite suffered pre-launch technical issues with its apogee motors and was moved to a launch by the Proton-K / DM-03 rather than the Ariane 5, as the Proton can inject directly in geostationary orbit (GEO).

[2] When positioned at 28.2 East, it joined DFS Kopernikus-1, which served mainly Eastern Europe.

The satellite was the first of Astra's craft to never carry analogue television services (with the exception of a solitary test card in 1999 [3]), and as of 2006, carried standard definition digital television, digital radio, and high-definition digital television, as well as Sky Interactive streams and the AVC Broadband and Silvermead satellite Internet services.

Two beams "2A North" and "2A South" transmit on horizontal and vertical polarisation.

[6] In July 2018, Astra 2A started moving west at approximately 0.6°/day [7] to arrive at its new position of 100° East in August 2018.